I first came across A Bittersweet Life browsing my DVD rental site. Although I am not familiar with the director or any of the actors the synopsis sounded interesting so I added it to my list. The story tells of Sun-Woo, a low level gangster working for Mr Kang. He is tasked with watching Mr Kang's young girlfriend while he is away as Kang is suspicious that she is unfaithful. What follows are the events unfolding from this task assigned to Sun-Woo.
There is a considerable amount of violence (as to be expected), which I found believable and not as exaggerated as it can be in some Asian films. But this does not lead to the lack of plot as in some others (Ong-bak for example), which makes this superior to many of its counterparts. The only weakness was the ending, which I found ambiguous and doesn't really conclude anything.
The acting is excellent all round and the movie flows at a nice rapid pace. I found it a little difficult to follow in places but I think this is due to having to concentrate on subtitles which always makes it a little more difficult to follow who is actually talking.
This film is well worth watching, although I am not convinced it will quite make it into my DVD collection. In my opinion it is far superior to Chan-Wook Park's trilogy (Sympathy and Lady I found frankly bland and Oldboy was ruined by the incredibly slow and strung out ending). Enjoyable and fun if not outstanding cinema.
There is a considerable amount of violence (as to be expected), which I found believable and not as exaggerated as it can be in some Asian films. But this does not lead to the lack of plot as in some others (Ong-bak for example), which makes this superior to many of its counterparts. The only weakness was the ending, which I found ambiguous and doesn't really conclude anything.
The acting is excellent all round and the movie flows at a nice rapid pace. I found it a little difficult to follow in places but I think this is due to having to concentrate on subtitles which always makes it a little more difficult to follow who is actually talking.
This film is well worth watching, although I am not convinced it will quite make it into my DVD collection. In my opinion it is far superior to Chan-Wook Park's trilogy (Sympathy and Lady I found frankly bland and Oldboy was ruined by the incredibly slow and strung out ending). Enjoyable and fun if not outstanding cinema.